


lowkey.

by hyzkoa



Category: Ao no Exorcist | Blue Exorcist
Genre: M/M, what the fuck why does arthur/rin exist but not lewin/arthur this site is fucked, yall make me sick
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-23
Updated: 2018-04-23
Packaged: 2019-04-26 20:09:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,519
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14409681
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hyzkoa/pseuds/hyzkoa
Summary: lewin pretends he's not gay for arthur and arthur is as dense as usual. commission for a crab





	lowkey.

He had come on his request, and although he believed to know his partner very well, the different range of sensations that overwhelmed him the moment he opened the door to Lightning’s room got him wide-eyed. Almost coughing as his brain related the disorganization to Lightning’s bath habits (or the lack of such) to the mess before him, his brain fabricated a smell that had yet to reach his nose. The growing pitch black mass suspended in midair they had found not too long ago in the particle accelerator test facility flashed through his mind; the small, lesser demons that crawled out of such mass could be very well crawling out from behind the stacked piles of boxes and files.

The paladin had been to Lightning’s place before, but the usual mess his partner lived in seemed to have spiked upon the discovery of the demon gate. The fact itself wasn’t surprising, but the sight… Someone like him couldn’t have pictured it even if he had been described thoroughly of what laid after the door before opening it.

Now the matter was finding the voice that had told him to come in.

Once he walked in, however, things seemed to be more organized than he had thought. Lightning had gotten an intern, hadn’t he? It felt different from the ‘organized mess’ that only its creator could figure out. The trashcan even seemed to be moderately empty instead of oozing with bags of junk food amongst other things. Arthur wasn’t sure if to congratulate Lightning’s intern or to tell them to not take it that seriously; their master was someone who barely cleaned himself after all, cleaning the room would hardly win them anything.

“Hey!” His voice came out of nowhere. Arthur looked around, but didn’t find him.

A safari hat appeared behind some stacks of files, followed by his unkempt face.

“This is what you’ve been up to.” Arthur stated, though he was not surprised – seeing how all the curtains were closed and how Lightning must’ve worked in the darkness did bother him a little.

 “The time limit of the barrier is until February…” Lightning trailed off as soon as he started, disappearing behind a pile of files.

“That’s what Mephisto said.” Arthur sneered. “I wouldn’t be surprised if we had less time than that. The demon activity has been increasing abnormally—”

“Exactly!” He emerged from above the mountain of folders and boxes, probably standing on a chair or on another pile (Arthur hoped it was the former), speaking overly excited as if to reward Arthur for his obvious insight as a field exorcist.  “Mephisto’s body is weakening at a fast rate as well so he must be reaching his limit. I figure that it’ll be no time before bigger demons appear around it…”

“The fodder will increase with that.”

 “Mephisto’s magic is buying us time rather than actually working as a full barrier; even though it’s an artificial gate, that just talks about how uncontrollable Gehenna is.”

“That is why they’re sending me there as Japan’s paladin.”

“Aren’t you gonna be cold and lonely in the artic? _Hahah_. Maybe you can hang out with some of my colleagues from the American branch.”

Arthur laughed at Lightning’s joke – although, it wasn’t really a joke.  

“What are you saying, Lightning?” The other feared for a fraction of a second what would follow that rhetoric question. “You’re my right hand man, but who’s the one that gets the job done? Besides, if I just bring the information you’ve prepared for me, it’ll be no different than having you there with me!” Arthur picked a folder from the top of the nearest box, holding it up to his face with a big smile. “You could say these folders are your replacement, Lightning!”

Lightning stayed quiet for a moment, staring at Arthur through his unkempt hair from above the documents. Arthur opened the folder he picked, skimming through the text-filled sheets of paper within it that, unlike the rest of the room, weren’t covered in dirt. He regarded that Lightning cared enough about his investigations to have them look as presentable as possible, even if there were files for different matters that were covered in junk food grease.

“Lightning…” Arthur’s brows furrowed, scanning the content in one of the pages. “What is _this_?”

Lightning dropped from where he stood, disappearing once again. “Didn’t you learn this at your exwire classes?”

“I don’t think so…”

“The order goes as far back as to have documents from hundreds of years ago with the demons that used to plague the earth before the exorcists’ reach globalized, but they are mediocre at best compared to the ones around the time Mephisto joined the Japanese branch…” Lewin looked around before finding the right boxes, pulling out thick folders from it and handing it to Arthur. They had the most recent documents of demon attacks and possessions before the discovery of the demon gate. “Out of the two thousand years the True Cross has been active, that only leaves for two hundred years’ worth of fulfilling documentation.” Lewin noticed the predictable frown that gave out Arthur’s obvious feelings towards acknowledging that Mephisto’s presence did better the quality of the order. “I’ve tried asking for a recovery and rewrite older files, since they mention higher demons that haven’t appeared since then, but it’s useless now that Mephisto’s vessel is compromised because of the gate.” He would be the only one able to do such thing, and the all-mighty Time God claimed that the condition of his body limited the scope of his abilities, and such he wouldn’t be able to travel so far back and stay long enough to cause the reform decades earlier in the ancient organization with his assistance. A Paladin will be able to handle any threats, is what he said, but Arthur interpreted it as more of a ‘can’t you do that much?’ and his spite for the demon king just grew. “There’s the chance the same ancient demons might manage to leak through the barrier before it’s even fully opened.”

“Then, we need to make everyone else who’ll be present aware of this.”

“I’m sure they’ve reached to the same conclusion. The documents for the ancient cases are more Japan-centric after all.”

Arthur hummed.

“You have a lot of homework to do, Angel!” Lewin patted his back. “But that’s for later. We’re going to have a reunion as the Angelic Legion of the Japanese Branch’s Paladin.”

“Shouldn’t this be more important?” Lewin begun with a ‘ _well_ …’ before Arthur continued with his words, not leaving room for an answer. “I’ve done my fair amount of studying thorough my life, but I’ve never faced an actual gate to Gehenna before.”

“A last drink with your subordinates will make it easier to memorize new things!”

Of course, Arthur believed him.

She would’ve wished to say that what had made the two men noticeable were their appearances, especially Arthur with his bright, long hair, but instead it was the latter’s obnoxiously loud voice, brimming with the energy she lacked after a long day’s work. She leaned over the counter, leaving her empty glass to ask for a refill. Lightning’s voice followed Arthur’s, this time closer.

“You started without us, that’s no fun!”

She shrugged, taking her drink and turning around to face the other two, resting a shoulder on the counter as she leant her back against it. “You guys’re late.”

“That’s because Angel couldn’t find clothes fitting to this _lowly bar_.”

“I wasn’t going to bring my custom made outfit to drink—!”

“Right, right.” The memory of Arthur making a show out of a few drops of root beer getting on his shirt came too easily, too vividly into her mind. She winced at the man’s overdramatic nature. Was it just her, or all the men around her were quirky to the point it was unbearable? Not like she felt normal herself, far from that. “You know, the dry-cleaning is there for something.”

“My clothes are made of the best material.” Shura let out a laugh. “You wouldn’t understand.”

“Why d’you even come wearing your exorcist clothes to begin with? We were drinkin’, not havin’ a meetin’.”

Arthur didn’t reply, but even to Shura, who was already on her way of singing to old songs that’d give out how old she’s turning, it was clear in the Paladin’s face that his reason to bring his flashy clothes everywhere, even for hanging out with his team, was that he wanted to drag attention to him. Because Arthur, in many aspects Shura noticed over the months of working with him, was childish in a way only a genius, prodigy boy would be. Only him would think his outfit would ring to his importance as a Paladin to the general public, who wasn’t aware of the existence of demons let alone exorcists. The chances of disregarding him as a cosplayer was higher than having people think he was important.

“Let’s sit!” Arthur turned around.

Taking her glass, Shura hopped off her seat and walked to the free table where Lewin was already heading.

“No matter what you wear you’ll still look like a movie star, Angel!” Lightning said as he sat down on the seat across Shura, next to Arthur, who laughed with energy – maybe too much energy as his ego was bursting with what he thought was Lightning’s praises.

“And I’m sure you’ll be my co-star if you stop wearing the same rags, Lightning!”

Shura laughed louder, drowning out whatever sound Lightning had made in response. He was quick to cut her joy out, though.

“By the way, have you written the report about Hachirotaro Okami?”

That wiped out the smile in Shura’s face instantly, letting out a loud groan as a hand scratched her head. He couldn’t stop talking about that, not even when they were supposed to relax. “Don’t ya have enough with the stuff from the Vatican? Why d’you want me of all people to write you a _report_?”

“You knew him for years! You could have details that could’ve slipped to anyone who looks at it with a professional eye.”

“Tell the four-eyes to do it. He was there personally to fight off Hachiro.”

Lightning laughed, shrugging. Next to him, Arthur narrowed his eyes, furrowing brows as he carefully – too carefully – scanned the contents of the menu lying on the table. Even for a damn beer, he was too exigent… and yet he didn’t seem to mind the man in rags next to him, who stood for all things that are opposite of Arthur’s beliefs. “I doubt a _busy_ kid like him will make time for me, though.”

“Whatever.” Shura groaned, rolling her eyes. “I woulda gone drinking alone if I knew y’just wanted to talk ‘bout that bastard.”

“I didn’t mean to dig up bitter memories.”

“ _I bet_.”

The night went by, glasses coming and going from their table, the pace faster on Shura’s end that had a built in alcohol tolerance the other two couldn’t hope to rival. No matter how many times he saw it, Arthur never stopped finding it unsightly—which was hypocritical as he got closer and closer to being to a worse level of drunkness than her; he started to lose grip of his manners, downing alcohol faster than a minute ago while receiving what started to look, on Shura’s end who could still objectively perceive their surroundings, more like praises than mockery from Lightning, who remained as the most sober out of the three.

“Chug! Chug! Chug! Chug! Chug!” Lightning and Shura chanted the latter bursting in laughter as Arthur managed to push down all of that alcohol in what he’d call a ritual of savages any other day. It was so tempting to take a photo.

Even then, her consciousness hadn’t left her to the point she wasn’t aware of her surroundings. Unlike the men that tried to pathetically hit on her, she didn’t easily ignore Lightning’s mockery of Arthur’s disheveled state.

“I never get tired of looking at this side of you Arthur! You should show up like this at the Vatican, I’m sure everyone would be entranced!”

Arthur put – or, more accurately, slammed – his hand on Lightning’s shoulder.

“I’m sure you never get tired of looking at me at all, Lightnin’!”

“So bright!”

Shura brought the beer to her lips, letting the glass hover before touching her lips as her gaze remained on the other two and their conversation. Lightning noticed, looking at her, and she raised her brows, smiling and looking away. What she noticed wasn’t something new, because as long as you were observant and didn’t disregard them easily, it didn’t even take to be longer than a week around these two to find something deeper to their interactions. The glass touched her lips and she leaned it, and kept leaning it, to gulp down the content as she minded her own business.

Or well, that’s what she meant to do.

Lightning reached out for his glass of alcohol, still smiling at her once she looked back at him; unnervingly so. He wasn’t pleased. Her own glass was slammed against the table, a satisfied sigh escaping her as the back of her palm brushed off the wetness in her lips.

And that was whole conversation between them, as Arthur still laughed and answered to Lewin’s ‘mocks’ in such a genuine manner.

“You make a great couple. You two.”

“Huh?” Arthur reacted first. Of course, he wasn’t aware of the little battle happened between Lewin and Shura, where the former was clearly limiting his expressions, carefully thinking his reactions. Arthur was the contrast to that; freely expressive, _an airhead_ , and quick to say what’s on his mind. “Couple—?”

“You’ve become so weak to alcohol recently, Shura. A few drinks and you’re already saying nonsense.” Lightning interrupted.

“To be honest, I think Arthur is more wasted than me tonight, with his two little sips of beer.” It wasn’t the first time she wondered this but, had any of them already tried _sake_ instead of imported beer during the months they had been in the Japanese branch? “Yer weirdly on guard for a night out with friends.  Somethin’ wrong, Lightnin’?”

“I’m not really looking toward to carrying two drunkards that can’t think right back to their places, again.”

Shura nodded, grinning at Lightning. “Don’t worry! I can still walk by myself, so Arthur’s all for you to carry back home.”

“Lightning’s not strong enough for that!” Arthur laughed loudly – too loudly, followed by Shura; both swordsmen laughing like poking at Lightning’s physical strength was the funniest joke in the world. Lightning had said something, but their laughter on top of the other conversations going on in the bar muffled it out for Shura’s ears.

“Oh, man.” It suddenly felt like a waste to come to such realizations so late, but Shura still enjoyed messing with Lightning once in a while. “Tonight is our last time drinking together, isn’t it?”

“That’s the whole point of being here!” Arthur burst out.

“That makes a lot of sense.”

“Don’t make new drinking buddies in the artic, Angel!”

“That’s impossible. He’ll tell them he doesn’t ever get drunk because he’s Mr. Perfect Paladin.”

“It’s true! I don’t ever get drunk!”

* * *

“Hey!” The upper class exorcist stopped him in his tracks. “Are you really gonna keep that up?”

“Ryuji was really eager to run some errands for his new teacher!”

“Actin’ like some sort of alarm clock to remind me of how I need to give _his teacher_ a report I shouldn’t even write to begin with doesn’t sound like the errands he’d want to run as your trainee. He even offered to _help_ by askin’ Yukio and Rin.”

“Well, that’d make it easier for you, wouldn’t it?”

“That’s not the point!”

“The kid’s so efficient that the only thing left was Hachirotaro’s details! Blame him for overworking.”

She shoved some loose papers towards his chest. “As if some Naga would be the biggest thing to worry about if that gate opens.”

“When it does,” he looked through the messily written notes, smiling as he was right in assuming there’d be things the Vatican would omit as useless. “Knowing the smallest detail will help.”

She sighed. “Arthur’s too much of a berserker to care about that. He’ll just slice anything that comes to sight.”

Lightning laughed. “This is more for personal reasons, though! I might make some Naga friends now!” He folded Shura’s notes. “Either way, I think that’s all they need in the front lines…”

The weird trailing on his last words would be noticed quicker the more it happened, and at this point she didn’t believe it to be her imagination, neither the fact that it mostly – or only – seemed to happen when Arthur was brought up, or when the conversation was in any way related to him.

“You miss him already?”

“…”

“It feels really weird to see you without bullying that dumbass.”

“And I thought you always got tired of his presence quickly.”

“You know, It’s been too many times already where I feel like you’re about to direct some sarcastic comment at him.” She shrugs. “But it’s like you get cut off the moment you remember he’s not here.”

“Oh my, aren’t you awfully observant! Do you feel bored without your man?”

“What about _you_?”

Granted, pouring salt on wounds came back with a price. “I wouldn’t know. I didn’t have the pleasure of meeting Hachirotaro.”

“This is ridiculous.”

“I didn’t think you’d be this into gossiping about your illusions of reality.”

“Isn’t that basically you every time you bring up Hachiro? Or…” She smiled; daintily covered her mouth with her fingers. “Did I hit jackpot?”

“You really need a demon to keep you busy. Go visit the Chancellor’s office, I’m sure he’ll be happy to check you out again.” Shura rolled her eyes.

“God, you miss him so much.”

He heard the words muttered from behind as he was already leaving, expressionless, forgetting them as quick as he heard them.

But they were still with him, even as he stared at his documents. Even as he found out about the clones, Negaus, Amaimon, Mephisto; it stuck to him in the back of his head, floating back to the surface of his thoughts whenever it was dark and silent.

* * *

Caliburn pierced easily through the body of a lesser demon that spawned from the area around the gate.

The Paladin from the German branch seemed to share some of the disdain he felt towards demons, the difference was that due to the time the King had spent in their country before settling in Japan, it was more focused on Mephisto as an individual rather than his origins. Though, he didn’t find himself growing closer to having colleagues just for the mere fact someone shared his point of view, for the people around him before seemed to have a different outlook on demons and their lineage, one going as far as to have a deal of her own with Amaimon’s familiar. His right hand man, even, was obsessed with them.

His mind was dead-set on eliminating anything that spawned around the area designated to him, and even going as far as aiding those that couldn’t keep up the pace (not one of the goodness of his heart, but more out of the hatred and ego that fueled him), he really didn’t see this trip as an opportunity to widen his circle of acquaintances.  Lightning, on the other hand, might’ve found interesting to talk with the representatives of the German branch, as Arthur had noticed his interest in matters involving Mephisto.

He heard someone talk about their partner back in their home country and a thought of Lightning, followed by what Shura had said their last night as a team, flashed through his mind. He frowned, confused at his own thoughts. If he had to talk about what he’d find attractive in a woman, he wouldn’t be able to apply any of those qualities to Lightning. They were on polar opposites, yet they got along so well.  To have people so different as a couple, there was no way it wouldn’t end in chaos; yet in all the time they’ve worked together, they became a great team.

If he had that walking encyclopedia with him it would save any trouble he might had with anything new that spawned from the artificial gate, but that was more of a convenience than a need as he really didn’t need to know the name and the level of a demon to have Calibarn slice through it. Either way, there wouldn’t be time for talking and classifying demons when the gate opened. Meanwhile, there were quiet times, despite how rare, he took his time to eat and refuel while he could. He sat down in one of the two chairs of the small table, inside the nearest base to the gate as another team took care of cleaning up the sliced demon corpses.

He looked at the chair in front of him.

Arthur missed him.


End file.
